Ishikawa Gasket America, Inc. v. N.L.R.B.

• Citation: 354 F.3d 534
• Decision Date: 07 January 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-1167/1310.,02-1167/1310.
• Parties: ISHIKAWA GASKET AMERICA, INC., Petitioner/Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent/Cross-Petitioner.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 534

354 F.3d 534

ISHIKAWA GASKET AMERICA, INC., Petitioner/Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent/Cross-Petitioner.

No. 02-1167/1310.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: October 21, 2003.

Decided and Filed: January 7, 2004.

Maurice G. Jenkins (argued and briefed), Paul R. Bernard (abriefed), Jennifer K. Nowaczok (briefed), Dickinson, Wright, PLLC, Detroit, MI, for Petitioner.

David Seid (argued and briefed), National Labor Relations Board, Office of General Counsel, Washington, DC, Aileen A. Armstrong (briefed), Frederick C. Havard (briefed), National Labor Relations Board Appellate Court Branch, Washington, DC, for Respondent.

Before MARTIN and SUTTON, Circuit Judges; MILLS, District Judge.^*

OPINION

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

Ishikawa Gasket America, Inc. seeks review of the National Labor Relations Board's decision that it violated section 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (3)), by reducing its annual bonus for hourly production employees during a union organization effort. The Board cross-applies to enforce its order. For the following reasons, we affirm.

I.

The facts are well documented in the administrative law judge's report, which was adopted and incorporated in the Board's order. The facts relevant to this Court's review, however, are summarized as follows.

Ishikawa Gasket America, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ishikawa Gasket of Japan, Inc., manufactures head and manifold gaskets for the automotive industry at its production facility located in Bowling Green, Ohio. Ishikawa's administrative offices are located in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The Bowling Green facility began operations with only twelve employees, but has since grown to more than two hundred employees. Prior to the acquisition by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, of an interest in Ishikawa's employees, an attempt to organize the employees occurred in October 1997, and a second attempt occurred approximately a year later.

In 1999, Ishikawa employees began another attempt to organize and Ishikawa's reaction to this campaign gave rise to this litigation. Apparently, the organization attempt coincided with internal management disputes and the development of two management factions, which were chief among the employees' complaints. The campaign against the union organization started at the top with President Tsunekazu Udagawa's command that the supervisors "must not let this drive[] succeed at any cost. You must stop it, period." Many of the supervisors shared President Udagawa's distaste for unions and began a relentless campaign against the union and those who supported the cause.

Examples of Ishikawa's repeated attempts to dissuade union supporters are well preserved in the record, but a few bear mention. Notably, supervisor Dave Kendrick convinced employees to surveil the union activities that were occurring and promised them compensation in return. Joe Makowski, Vice President of Manufacturing in charge of the Bowling Green facility, compiled a list of pro-union and anti-union employees and later looked to it to develop ways to "put a stop to the Union." Much of the surveillance focused on employee Julie Wilson, the person who spearheaded the campaign for union representation or, as Makowski called her, the "pain in the [expletive]"or the "Union antagonist." Upon Ishikawa's direction, the supervisors removed union literature located in the production facility. Indeed, Kendrick and other managers began making a "morning walk-through" to discover and remove any union paraphernalia.

Additionally, Makowski and Kendrick created a racist leaflet and constructed it so that it appeared to be authored by the union with the intention that it would dissuade employees from organizing. The document referred to the "Japs bomb[ing] Pearl Harbor" and stated that, "We give you your own bomb to drop on the sneaky BASTARDS!!!" Finally, the supervisors began an unprecedented practice of soliciting the employees' complaints and after discovering that the employees' chief complaint was the management, Vice President Masanori Yamanami fired several supervisors including Kendrick and Makowski.

On November 30, the Union filed a petition to represent Ishikawa's employees. Two days prior to the election to determine whether the union would represent the employees, President Udagawa reminded the employees that their complaints were taken care of and there was no reason for a union. A stipulated election was held on January 21, 2000 and the employees overwhelmingly voted against the union.

A consolidated complaint alleging various violations of the National Labor Relations Act was filed on October 30, 2000. Relevant to this appeal, the complaint specifically alleged that Ishikawa reduced its annual Christmas bonus from fifteen cents per hour worked in a forty-hour work week to thirteen cents per hour worked in a forty-hour work week and that the reduction was based upon and in retaliation for the employees' organization attempt.

The administrative law judge found that Ishikawa had violated section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1)) by chilling the efforts to organize, soliciting employee grievances in an attempt to persuade employees that a union was unneeded, surveilling the employees' union activities, distributing inflammatory literature, and discriminatorily warning and suspending Wilson and terminating her employment because of her union activities and because she had previously filed charges with the Board. Finally, the administrate law judge found that Ishikawa violated section 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act by reducing the employees' bonuses because of their union activities.

With slight modifications, the Board adopted the administrative law judge's findings. The Board issued an order which required Ishikawa to cease and desist its unfair labor practices and to post a remedial notice that stated that it had violated the Act and explained the rights of the employees. Additionally, the Board required that Ishikawa reinstate Wilson and make her whole for any losses she suffered, and to make the production employees whole for the unlawful reduction in the Christmas bonus. Ishikawa appeals only the Board's decision that Ishikawa's reduction of the employees' bonuses violated the Act. The National Labor Relations Board cross-applies to enforce its order issued against Ishikawa. Because Ishikawa failed to challenge the Board's findings with respect to all other violations of the Act beside the bonus issue, we conclude that the Board is entitled to summary enforcement of the Board's findings that went unchallenged. See N.L.R.B. v. Gen. Fabrications Corp., 222 F.3d 218, 231-32 (6th Cir.2000).

II.

A.

This Court's review of the Board's decision is limited. The Board's findings of facts are conclusive unless they are unsupported by substantial evidence. Id. at 225. Substantial evidence exists when the evidence is "adequate, in a reasonable mind, to uphold the [Board's] decision." Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted). When presented with conflicting factual inferences, this Court is not at liberty to draw an inference different from the inference drawn by the Board. Stark Ceramics, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 375 F.2d 202, 205 (6th Cir.1967). The Board's determination that Ishikawa was motivated by an improper purpose in its decision to reduce the Christmas bonus is a question of fact that may be overturned only if it is unsupported by substantial evidence, even if this Court were to draw a contrary conclusion had it engaged in de novo review. See id.; Gen. Fabrications Corp., 222 F.3d at 225.

An employer runs afoul of 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) when it engages in conduct that is designed to "interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise" of their right to organize. Relatedly, an employer commits a violation of 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3) when it discriminates in the terms or conditions of employment as a means of discouraging union membership. This Court has adopted a burden-shifting approach to determine whether anti-union animus motivated an employer's decision. See Gen. Fabrications, 222 F.3d at 226. First, the Board must establish a prima facie case by demonstrating that "the employee's protected activities were a motivating factor in the employer's decision." Id. Second, the burden shifts to the employer to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have made the same decision regardless of the fact that the employees engaged in protected activity. Id.

B.

Ishikawa argues that it made its decision to reduce the annual bonus before it was aware of the organization attempt and, therefore, its decision could not have been motivated by anti-union animus. In support of this assertion, Ishikawa points to an electronic message dated November 16, 1999, in which President Udagawa and Vice President Yamanami discussed decreasing the amount of the bonuses. The record, however, belies this argument. We find that there is substantial evidence in the record which demonstrates that Ishikawa made its decision fully...